Apple A10 Fusion in iPhone 7 family surprises, exceeds pre-release expectations
Apple's A10 Fusion processor found in the new iPhone 7 family is a quad-core chip, but not one like Apple's ever used in any device its ever made before.
Historically, all of Apple's quad-core chips on the Mac side have all four processors able to hit the same peak speed. The A10 Fusion architecture differs, having two high power cores, and two high efficiency cores.
Apple claims that overall, the A10 Fusion in the iPhone 7 family is 120 times faster than the original iPhone, and 40 percent faster than the A9 chip in the 2015 iPhone 6s.
Processing speed comes at a price. In the same chip generation, the faster chips generally take more power. Low energy chips draw less, but at a cost of processing speed.
To keep the iPhone 7 running at peak efficiency, the two disparate pairs of cores are driven my a new traffic-regulating chip, delivering tasks with low computing power demands to the high efficiency cores, and heavy duty tasks to the high power cores. Practically, this means that tasks like e-mail checking and music playing will be handled by the high efficiency cores, preserving battery life when in use much better than if the tasks were dealt with by the high power chips.
The raw benchmarks of the chip are impressive, with the iPhone 7 edging out the 12.9-inch iPad pro in performance -- and they don't seem to involve the high-efficiency chips at all.
The iPhone 7 has a single-core aggregate benchmark of 3233, as compared to the iPhone 6s Plus pulling down a 2508. Multi-core performance on the new device is listed as 5363, with the 6s Plus coming in at 4106.
A more tangible benefit of the A10 Fusion for users is probably going to be battery life, with Apple claiming that the regulating chip gives up to two hours of usage of the iPhone 7 over the iPhone 6s, depending on usage.
Graphics aren't just for gamers
Coupled with the A10 Fusion is a new six-core GPU. Apple promises "console-level" gaming, and claims that the GPU in the A10 Fusion is three times faster than the A8 processor found in the iPhone 6, fourth generation Apple TV, and latest iPod Touch.
The increased graphical and processing performance is a key component to Apple's implementation of Wide Color in the iPhone 7.
Advancing the iPhone
The A10 Fusion is a giant advance over the A9 processor in iPhone 6s, when one was not expected by the mainstream press. It even reportedly still uses the 14nm FinFET process, with the next generation of iPhone chip shifting to 10nm with resultant battery life and thermal improvements.
Regardless of the slightly older chip manufacturing process still in use for the A10 Fusion, the chip brings both power and battery life to the line, and is another reason why pre-release criticism of the iPhone 7 not being innovative were mistaken.
Historically, all of Apple's quad-core chips on the Mac side have all four processors able to hit the same peak speed. The A10 Fusion architecture differs, having two high power cores, and two high efficiency cores.
Apple claims that overall, the A10 Fusion in the iPhone 7 family is 120 times faster than the original iPhone, and 40 percent faster than the A9 chip in the 2015 iPhone 6s.
Processing speed comes at a price. In the same chip generation, the faster chips generally take more power. Low energy chips draw less, but at a cost of processing speed.
To keep the iPhone 7 running at peak efficiency, the two disparate pairs of cores are driven my a new traffic-regulating chip, delivering tasks with low computing power demands to the high efficiency cores, and heavy duty tasks to the high power cores. Practically, this means that tasks like e-mail checking and music playing will be handled by the high efficiency cores, preserving battery life when in use much better than if the tasks were dealt with by the high power chips.
The raw benchmarks of the chip are impressive, with the iPhone 7 edging out the 12.9-inch iPad pro in performance -- and they don't seem to involve the high-efficiency chips at all.
The iPhone 7 has a single-core aggregate benchmark of 3233, as compared to the iPhone 6s Plus pulling down a 2508. Multi-core performance on the new device is listed as 5363, with the 6s Plus coming in at 4106.
A more tangible benefit of the A10 Fusion for users is probably going to be battery life, with Apple claiming that the regulating chip gives up to two hours of usage of the iPhone 7 over the iPhone 6s, depending on usage.
Graphics aren't just for gamers
Coupled with the A10 Fusion is a new six-core GPU. Apple promises "console-level" gaming, and claims that the GPU in the A10 Fusion is three times faster than the A8 processor found in the iPhone 6, fourth generation Apple TV, and latest iPod Touch.
The increased graphical and processing performance is a key component to Apple's implementation of Wide Color in the iPhone 7.
Advancing the iPhone
The A10 Fusion is a giant advance over the A9 processor in iPhone 6s, when one was not expected by the mainstream press. It even reportedly still uses the 14nm FinFET process, with the next generation of iPhone chip shifting to 10nm with resultant battery life and thermal improvements.
Regardless of the slightly older chip manufacturing process still in use for the A10 Fusion, the chip brings both power and battery life to the line, and is another reason why pre-release criticism of the iPhone 7 not being innovative were mistaken.
Comments
With the A10 I wonder if we are seeing something similar. The A10 is presumably made on a tweaked version of the TSMC 16nm process used for the A9. Because it's mostly the same process, perhaps Apple realized that any increase in clock speed was going to be expensive in terms of power. But this time, instead of going with three lower-clocked high performance cores, they decided to go with two high clocked high performance cores, but to compensate for the higher power draw, they added two low power, low clocked cores. If so, then perhaps the A11 will switch back to just two big cores...
WTF is wrong with AI iOS app? What junk, and to think about the irony of how we critic Apple related news on an iOS app that is plagued by misgivings. Do you heavy contributors comment using a desktop Internet browser?
What chip is that going to come with? The A10X? That's going to be a monster chip!
400 flying monkeys is impressive and cool on an iPhone, but my iPad Pro better have 600-800 flying monkeys!
I doubt this is big.little, but rather a superior implementation by Apple. They even hinted at this by mentioning their custom performance controller at the announcement.
big.little isn't nearly as good as people think, especially with the overhead you get if you put a thread onto the wrong core and want to move it later.
Can we get a story on this? Surely, this is just as newsworthy as any bogus analyst speculation stories.
Chinese man threatens to jump off 25th-floor balcony because he 'lost his iPhone 6'
I don't recall anybody ever wanting to jump off of any balconies because they had lost their Android phone.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3785511/Chinese-man-threatens-jump-25th-floor-balcony-lost-iPhone-6.html#ixzz4K4iTRvUp
It has an A9 chip and it's super speedy, and the difference between that and your iPhone 4 will be quite significant, to put it very mildly.
Those chips are crazy. Apple's combination of using them with their super fast storage solution, plus 3gb of memory means iPhone 7 is going to be so ridiculously fast that I can't even wrap my head around it.
likewise you still can't click a quoted message to go to the original, which is a standard feature on other sites and even the old AI.
Fine. I can deal with the delay.
But next year's iPhone "8" could be another huge leap forward in design *and* technology.
Especially if all these rumors turn out to be true:
TSMC-made "A11" 10nm-process SoC for faster speeds, better battery life, lower heat output
- http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/05/06/rumor-tsmc-already-finalizing-10nm-a11-processor-design-for-apples-iphone-7s
Zirconium dioxide ceramic (aka zirconia) enclosure for total scratch-resistance, wireless charging, and radio transparency
Zirconia consumer electronics enclosure patent (2006):
- http://appleinsider.com/articles/06/11/30/apple_seeks_patent_on_radio_transparent_zirconia_ce_casings
Specific Watch and iPhone zirconia enclosure patent (2015):
- http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2016/09/revealing-apple-patent-covers-ceramic-apple-watch-and-all-new-ceramic-iphone.html
Apple supplier rumor:
- http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/05/19/glass-based-iphone-redesign-coming-in-2017-apple-partner-catcher-reaffirms
AMOLED display panel for better battery life and... wait for it... thinner form factor
- http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/04/17/apple-expected-to-ditch-aluminum-release-glass-backed-iphone-with-oled-display-in-2017
I wish I could pre-order the 2017 iPhone NOW.